MyPhone My36 Review

Introduction

Last year, MyPhone ditched the idea of giving their devices fancy names. MyPhone stopped using Rio, Infinity and Ocean on their future iterations. After the last iteration of Infinity, MyPhone stared using ‘My’ followed by 2 to 3 digits, which relate to the device’s specs.

My 1x/1xxx: Feature phones

My 2x: Quad-core smartphones

My 3x: Octa-core smartphones

The new move by MyPhone seemed to have gained the approval of most Filipinos. I, for one, am in favor of it too as it makes things simpler for me to understand and to delineate the variants.

Their latest smartphone, My36, received rave and positive reviews by users last December. Our December was also the busiest month; and traffic to MyPhone My36 was a big part of it.

The unboxing and first impressions video we posted last December is also a blockbuster. It currently has over 18,000 views and 190+ likes on YouTube.

Just in case you missed our unboxing video, check out the embedded video below.

Use the navigation keys to browse through the sections.

Build and Construction

MyPhone My36 isn’t your typical slab of plastic and glass. Its attractive design implementations make it stand out from the competition.

Faux-leather back casing and rounded side bezels: check. Anodized aluminium side bezels and well-balanced weight: check.

Check out the build and construction of the device. If you wish to check on details, click the hotspots on the photos below,.

The device sports a 5.2” FHD IPS with Gorilla Glass 3. Above it are its notification light, 5mp front facing camera, earpiece and a front-flash. It doesn’t have capacitive buttons below its screen, which makes it look more attractive (by my standards, at least). Some would prefer having capacitive buttons than on-screen navigation keys.

Its back casing with faux-leather design looks and feels fantastic. The MyPhone-signature Philippine Map has returned on this device too. I don’t mind seeing and having it on my phone, actually. Above the map are its 13mp camera and flash, which we will discuss in greater detail later. Below the map are MyPhone branding and speakers.

Go to the next page for Screen Quality.

Screen

As earlier pointed out, the device sports a 5.2” FHD IPS with Gorilla Glass 3. Colors pop out with near perfect saturation and contrast. Texts look crisp, and details on screen appear fantastic.

The screen slightly curves at the side, which gives it a more premium look. And did I say that it’s Corning Gorilla Glass 3, a technology that’s made to withstand serious scratches?

Viewing angle is insane on My36. I prepared a proof below for your reference.

Operating System

My36 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. On top of it runs a secondary screen that gives its UI a distinctly MyPhone feel.

Its default launcher doesn’t have an app tray. There are also some pre-installed applications that may be uninstalled at will. Some of the main applications like Phone and Messages have secondary layer of skin too.

I don’t mind having these UI design implementations, honestly, because everything was carried out very nicely by MyPhone. Everything looks clean and simple without any degradation in quality and software efficiency.

UI Screenshots

Continue to the next page to see our report on My36’s Performance.

Performance

I’ve used MyPhone My36 for more than 2 months. It’s more than enough for me to fairly judge and conclude the quality of its performance. On paper, My36 is a beast: its 1.3Ghz octa-core processor (MTK6753) and 3GB RAM are strict indications of its prowess over its counterparts.

Based on actual usage, My36 offers so much more – it gave me the right kind of satisfaction for an octa-core smartphone. I was able to play the games I wanted to play on this smartphone. Games like The Room 1 and 2, Minecraft Story Mode, and Minecraft are playable on the device with zero to minimal issues. There is a little issue on NBA 2K16, but I can confirm that the game is highly playable. I just had to turn off some details on the game settings for me to play the game smoothly and almost lag free.

Check out our smartphone benchmark results on the next page if you’re after the numbers.

Benchmark Results

Click next to proceed to our review about My36’s camera.

Camera

Apart from performance and screen quality, My36 also excels in terms of camera performance. Its rear facing camera supports photo up to 4160 x 3120 resolution (13megapixel) and can take videos up to 1920 x 1080. Based on AIDA64, a system information software for Android devices, it supports several features that are normally not supported on other devices such as video stabilization, zoom, smooth zoom, auto exposure locking and auto white balance locking.

Its front facing camera is equally amazing as well. It can take photos up to 2560 x 1920, and video up to 1920 x 1088.

MyPhone also installed several modes on its camera application like Panoroma, Night Mode, Professional/Manual Mode, HDR, Dual View, Normal, Face Beauty and Sports. There are also features available in-app like touch shutter, smile shot, shutter sound, GPS location, self time and anti-flicker.

Its professional mode lacks the features I wanted like manually focusing subjects (on photo and video. I also had to commit the settings prior to taking videos on manual mode, which I am able to do on ASUS Zenfone and LG V10.

Connectivity and Battery Life

The device has everything you need for a smartphone when it comes to connectivity and networking. The lack of NFC is bearable for me. It can take up to 2 SIM cards and compatible with either Smart or Globe LTE.

There is also a WiFi module that detects 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz network bands. There are times that it wouldn’t detect 5Ghz. The device has Bluetooth too, and I never had any issues connecting it to my speakers and headphones.

Its 2900mAh battery can stay up to a day at moderate usage. You’re going to need to bring a power bank though as this can get discharged from 100% to 20% in less than 6 hours at heavy usage.

Verdict

MyPhone My36 deserves to be in your pocket.

The last time we gave a high satisfaction rating to a smartphone sold by a local company was the Cherry Mobile Flare X. This time, it is easy to say that My36 is better than Flare X in some respects: design, build, screen quality and performance. Its cameras, although I find them fully packed and capable, need a little overhauling and tweaking though.

If you’re on the lookout for a smartphone at less than PhP7,000 budget, put this under your priority.

Leave a comment

Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of GadgetPilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.